One thing I enjoy is finding a well written comment. Here is part of one from this article

“However, we began moving down another mine-field strewn path when in the early 20th century we began to misreport our history as being driven by economics rather than morals. And here we sit, still confused about why there is so much evil in the world. Science or economics are simply inadequate to explain the deep and eternal longings of Man. In that choice, we left ourselves bereft of any cogent way to explain our present predicament when we ditched God and assumed hysterically that the Christian and Islamist prayed to the same Creator of the Universe.”

One observation I heard some time back is related to this and Jerusalem. What is so interesting about this small hill in a desert with no natural adequate water or strategic demographics. It does, however, have a strategic location in Christianity, Judaism, and islam. Therefore, what we are seeing in the middle east is spiritual in nature.

This afternoon, I actually had time off work. That is, I had time away from that activity which produced a paycheck. Labor continued. The task chosen was the job of changing size of a galvanized pipe to a smaller diameter which would fit into the flag pole which was previously damaged. The size obtained was just big enough that the threaded end would fit into the flag pole, and nothing else. It was an “Oh well” moment. I took it back to the plumbing store and exchanged for a size smaller as well as a smaller PVC cap which I sanded to fit into the inside of the flag pole. That was to remove the chance of clank were the end not secure in the flagpole. While on this project I noted an inscription on the side of the galvanized pole reading Jazeera Oman (and then some letters). I mulled on the subject and realized the situation in which we now find ourselves. Bethlehem Steel is no longer. I looked them up and found their memorial. What is sad is that on the site where they manufactured a phenomenal amount of steel, they had to find 16,000 tons of steel to build the casino which was to take its place. So, instead of the great manufacturer producing our basis for building, we now import the basis for our structures from the very people who have a desire to kill each one of us, and the ideology which led to the destruction of the trade towers and deaths of thousands of Americans. Yes, now we are building with basic parts embossed with the name of our enemies. Within each of our structures will be the name of those who desire our demise. In the practical sense this means that we are giving our hard earned money to our enemies for something we could have produced here in our own country and proudly had previously done so. Such a situation could not have happened by chance. This took effort to do. That effort was done on this side of the globe by those who do not hold our values or country in high regard.

Do you remember the Mash rerun where each person was wanting something for something else? Well, we need to get the truck registered. To get it registered, we need it inspected. To get it inspected, all the pertinent items need to be operational. The parking brake is not holding the truck on an incline. Therefore, the parking brake needed to be tightened. The yoke to tighten the parking brake was rusted from the salt on the East coast. Rather than fight rust, I decided we might as well build a new one and just cut off the old. To build a new yoke, I obtained a piece of metal and two bolts with locking nuts. We went into the shed and put the new workbench to good use building a new yoke: Now, all we have to do is cut off the old one, to install the new one, to get the parking brake working, to get the truck inspected, to get it acceptable for registration. Mash rerun, in real life.

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We are in the big city, Texas right now taking off the weekend. Actually, there is a little business associated with the trip. To hash a little history, we had two hail storms and the truck had mini moon craters across the hood. I called the insurance to verify if we had comprehensive and confirmed that we indeed did. The adjuster came out later, and adjusted us out of the truck. I can’t complain as what they offered for the truck was decent – really decent. We just didn’t have a truck. We started searching and I ran across one on ebay. Prayers were said and a tiny bit of bidding ensued. (I know this was covered in a previous post, but for those new to the saga I am reiterating) The truck was won and all that needed to happen now was to get it from the East coast to Texas. This was not a cut a dried procedure. I now have learned that the truckers take bids on which jobs they can combine for a particular trip. That means, no one was going to drive to Bugburg to bring us the truck. There was one who was going to take it from 40 miles away from its location to the big city, but we would have to rent a separate tow truck to move it from both locations. Don’t forget, that we would not be able to meet the truck as the trip was about 5 hours and we both work. Problem. Problem. Another bid came through saying they would pick up the truck from where it was to the big city, Texas. I said fine, but we can’t be there until Saturday because of the mileage. This time, the driver said he would drop off the truck in his yard and we could pick it up at our convenience. Sold. That driver got the job, and we planned the trip including a weekend in the big city – since we were going to be here.
We arrived at o-dark-thirty at a hotel obtained on Priceline. Now I don’t recommend this site when bidding on small town hotels, as I have discovered you can get a better deal from the hotel directly. Therefore, I do use their site to obtain hotel names and then compare from that point. When going to the big city, however, I have discovered that a decent low bid does produce results. We are now in a fancy hotel, right off the airport, with indoor pool and highway access, a suite including couches TV, and wet bar in the anteroom and TV chairs and desk in the bedroom for just over $50 a night. It was a good deal. So this time worked well. I was kind of sad that it was a 3 star hotel instead of 2 1/2 as the 2 1/2 star hotels include breakfast. Oh well, we’ll just have to consume our sorrows in the room we received. 🙂
The truck was situated where the driver indicated and not too far from the hotel we obtained. The clear coat was nearly nonexistent on the top, but it was expected for the year of the truck. The engine didn’t start immediately and we discovered that the ignition switch was in need of changing. It sometimes requires several twists before the starter engages. That can be fixed with an annoying change of the switch. Not too bad a problem as I can tell. There was a window sticker showing that the oil change had about 1500 miles on it, and I had already scheduled with a local transmission shop to have the fluids changed – all of them.
We went to the shop as I had informed the man there that it was new to us, and we had no history. The man at the shop asked me if the truck was driving all right. I informed him it was. He then said that the more honest shops will tell you that there is no need to change the fluid, and especially don’t do it before a long trip as the fluid has a high detergent value and a change has the potential of loosening the scraps and pieces that could cause the transmission to quit. Yes, if you want to change it that’s your business. Go ahead. Just change it when you are home, so the trip back won’t be so long. I took his advice and we left. Next was the tires. I had noticed the appearance in the rubber of a tire that had sat for a long period of time and felt that a new set at the start might save us problems. The tire place was happy to oblige and offered a $10 stem to stern inspection. We said do it, then went to the mall for the next couple of hours.
The new set of feet were applied and the truck is looking decent. It runs well, excepting the problem with the ignition switch which will be changed once we get home. The inspection revealed that the brake pads and shoes were new, and the only thing pending was the salt rust indigenous to the vehicles from that part of the country. All in all, it was a good purchase – and we did so for much less than, well… I will leave it at that hint.